MELBOURNE, Fla. (Floriday Today)-- Motorists caught speeding to grandma's house in Melbourne were
greeted with a bittersweet Christmas Day surprise as officers doled out
warnings and tickets alongside scratch-off lottery games.

The unique move was an added touch Melbourne police officers wanted to put on the normally quiet holiday traffic.

By
1 p.m. Christmas Day, more than 30 scratch-off game tickets were handed
out to speeders and other traffic violators in a bid to spread holiday
cheer while keeping the roads safe, police say.

"We're just doing a little bit of a different technique," said Sgt. Jamie Rocque.

"When
we pull the motorists over, we're also giving them the scratch-off
tickets that the officers bought with their own personal funds. It's
something good to do in light of the holidays. We're getting a lot of
surprised looks...people don't know what to say," Rocque said.

The
road patrols are concentrated along the Wickham Road commercial
corridor, a roadway that has had a number of traffic crashes in recent
weeks.

Officers are also checking for tinted windows and
other violations. Christmas Day traffic also seems a little heavier than
normal, Rocque said.

"There are no special operations, but we are basically doing road patrol because we have to keep the streets safe," he said.

It was not immediately known if any of the game tickets were big winners.
"I don't know, but we wish them well," Rocque said.